The formation of anti-Bolshevik resistance in the Volga region, as in other regions, took place on the basis of the activation of underground groups. Among them, the most organized were the Socialist Revolutionary military structures and officer organizations of the former Kazan Military District.

From the end of April 1918, under the leadership of the Military Organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, underground structures were created in Samara, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Kazan and Simbirsk.

With and without Czechs

The most powerful Samara center prepared an armed uprising simultaneously with the attack of the city by the Penza group of the Czechoslovak Legion under the command of Lieutenant S. Chechek. Two officer squads and one party squad - the Social Revolutionary - were formed, with a total number of about 500 fighters. The leadership of the military headquarters of the underground was taken over by 26-year-old Lieutenant Colonel artilleryman N.A. Galkin. At the same time, participants in the Volga underground planned to act even if Chechek’s Czechoslovaks abandoned the idea of ​​an armed uprising. Historian S.P. Melgunov wrote: “In the Russian social environment they were preparing in an organized manner for an attack against the Bolsheviks long before the arrival of the Czechoslovaks, with the intention of staying on the Volga and the Urals...” The Samara underground workers counted on active support from the peasantry.

At the moment when Czech legionnaires entered Samara (June 8, 1918), civil authority was already operating in the city. The new government - the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch) - was composed of right-wing Socialist Revolutionaries - members of the Constituent Assembly, the only legitimate all-Russian body of power after the fall of the Provisional Government. The initial composition of the Committee included: members of the Samara Provincial Council of Peasant Deputies I. M. Brushvit and B. K. Fortunatov, member of the Samara Council of Military Deputies P. D. Klimushkin, deputy of the Minsk Provincial Council I. P. Nesterov and the chairman - a member of the Tver Provincial Council Council of Peasant Deputies V.K. Volsky.

Soldiers of the Czechoslovak Corps examine the captured pennant of the red detachment. June 1918

According to Klimushkin’s recollections, already on the eve of the speech, appeals to the population were prepared, which contained an assessment of the Bolsheviks as having given the country over to the “German bayonet” and disgraced it “before all the peoples with their treacherous separate peace”, having violently seized “power in the country against the will of the people” and encroached “to this will in the person of the Constituent Assembly.” They also talked about the victory over this power that had not yet taken place: now it has been “swept away by the same weapons. The revolution we carried out thanks to the approach of the valiant Czechoslovak troops to Samara was carried out in the name of the great principle of democracy and independence of Russia.” The appeals also explained that “Komuch’s immediate goal is to strengthen the power of the Constituent Assembly and create a National Army to fight the external enemy. In the field of foreign policy ... remains faithful to the allies and rejects any idea of ​​a separate peace, and therefore does not recognize the force of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty.”

Democracy and the idea of ​​restoring the Constituent Assembly

Komuch was a collegial governing body that concentrated the highest military and civil powers in its hands. The structure of the Committee was to include persons “elected from the Samara province on the basis of universal suffrage,” as well as “representatives from local governments” (Order No. 1 of June 8, 1918). In the future, it was assumed that as other members of the Constituent Assembly arrived in Samara, they would automatically join this government. Two parties - the Bolsheviks and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries - that organized the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly were excluded from the restored structure. In August 1918, Komuch already consisted of 29 members of the Assembly who found themselves on the territory of the Samara province.

The Committee launched active legislative and creative work. Order No. 1 (all laws adopted by the Committee before the formation of the Council of Governors took the form of orders) proclaimed the program of the new government: “In the name of the Constituent Assembly, the Bolshevik government in the city of Samara and the Samara province is declared overthrown. All commissioners are relieved of their positions. The local government bodies dissolved by the Soviet government are restored in full force: city dumas and zemstvo councils, which are invited to immediately begin work... All restrictions and restrictions on freedoms introduced by the Bolshevik authorities are abolished and freedom of speech, press, meetings and rallies is restored... Commissioners and the heads of Soviet enterprises are obliged to submit all cases within three days to the newly restored bodies according to their affiliation or to persons appointed by the Committee... The Revolutionary Tribunal, as a body that does not meet true people's democratic principles, is abolished and the District People's Court is restored... United, independent, free Russia. All power to the Constituent Assembly. These are the slogans and goals of the new revolutionary government..."

Along with the district court, magistrates' courts were restored in the judicial system (the resumption of their work was supervised by the district zemstvo), as well as the military district court (its concurrent chairman was the comrade of the chairman of the Samara district court V.N. Aristov) and military prosecutorial supervision.

Already in mid-summer, the need arose to allocate a special “orderly” management apparatus, accountable to the Committee, but to a certain extent autonomous from it, and from the second half of August 1918, the Council of Department Managers began work, which actually became the government in the Volga region territory occupied by Komuch. It included 14 departments: state security, agriculture, food, trade and industry, labor, finance, communications, post and telegraphs, state property and state control, military, internal affairs, justice, education and foreign affairs. Among the leaders remained P. D. Klimushkin (Department of Internal Affairs) and I. P. Nesterov (Department of Railways). Foreign affairs, mail and telegraph were headed by one of the leaders of the Samara party organization of the Socialist Revolutionaries, M. A. Vedenyapin-Stegeman. The former head of the Irkutsk provincial police, Socialist Revolutionary E.F. Rogovsky, became the Chairman of the Council and the managing department of state security. With the approval of the Committee, the Central Committee of the Socialist Revolutionary Party moved its work to Samara: Chairman of the Central Committee V.M. Chernov arrived here on September 20, 1918. Most of the members of the Council were members of the Right Socialist Revolutionary Party. However, the Menshevik I.M. Maisky became the manager of the labor department, cadet G.A. Krasnov held the position of manager of the control department, and N.A. Galkin, promoted to major general by Komuch, headed the Military Department.

Socio-political program under the red flag

The basis of Komuch’s political course was socialist slogans, which, as its members believed, maximally expressed the interests of ordinary voters. In their legislative activities, the Socialist Revolutionaries turned to the regulatory framework created by the Provisional Government and the All-Russian Constituent Assembly. In particular, the land law adopted by the Assembly on January 5, 1918 became the basis of Komuch’s agrarian policy. This act was basically similar to the Bolshevik Decree on Land, since it abolished any form of private ownership of land and transferred its management to local communities or land committees. The right to harvest on privately owned lands seized by peasants belonged to the “sowers” ​​(order No. 124 of July 22).

As a sign of continuity with “February 1917,” a red flag was raised over the government building in Samara, and the wearing of shoulder straps and badges as attributes of the “old regime” was banned in the newly organized People’s Army. Red banners with the inscription “Power to the people - power to the Constituent Assembly” embroidered on them were sent to the front a week after the formation of a democratic government in Samara (order No. 19 of June 14).

The new government nationalized all motor vehicles, and by a separate order (No. 28 of June 16) prohibited “private individuals from driving cars.” Fixed prices for bread were abolished, but the rationed distribution of products was preserved and a specially created “food administration” was proclaimed “a state body in charge of the entire food business, controlling, directing it, issuing mandatory decrees and instructions permitting certain operations with grain.” Private food transactions were to be controlled by the so-called Grain Council - a body consisting of eight people: three representatives of the Samara stock exchange, three members of the provincial council of cooperatives, as well as a representative of the granary department of the local branch of the State Bank and a representative of the food administration (order No. 53 of June 27) .

Relations with other anti-Bolshevik forces

A remarkable fact characterizing the all-Russian status of Komuch was his recognition by the Ural and Orenburg Cossack troops. Orenburg Ataman, member of the Constituent Assembly, Colonel A.I. Dutov, became a member of the Committee (Komuch’s resolution of July 15, 1918). And a special agreement was concluded with the Ural military government, which provided for the subordination of the Cossacks to Komuch not only during military operations, but also in civil life. Colonel S.A. Shchepikhin became the authorized representative of the troops in Samara.

Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly. Among those present: P. D. Klimushkin (4th from left), V. K. Volsky (7th from left), I. P. Nesterov (2nd from right). Samara, 1918

An attempt was also made to establish interaction between the Volga Front and the Volunteer Army. Shchepikhin wrote to its Supreme Leader, General M.V. Alekseev, about his readiness to recognize his seniority based on both military and “political circumstances.” The head of the military department, Komucha Galkin, who initially feared that the Volunteer Army would cause a split, at the end of August 1918 recognized the need for Alekseev to arrive in Samara even “before the Volunteer Army arrives, in order to henceforth destroy all the sharp differences between the armies... The Committee of the Constituent Assembly decided to go to all concessions, except for the land issue... they themselves realized that it was necessary to pursue a firm policy.” However, these plans did not come true.

Public involvement and defeat in local elections

A special place in the state building of Komuch was occupied by the structures of public self-government and “representative democracy”. In a speech at a session of the Samara City Duma, which resumed its work in June 1918, Klimushkin stated: “In the near future, self-government bodies will be entrusted with extensive government work. The time has passed when these bodies were corralled, when they were opposed to the central government. Local authorities must also be state authorities.” New principles of “personnel policy” were declared, according to which “the public element” was to be given preference over “the numerous corporation of officials of the tsarist ministries.”

In addition to zemstvo-city self-government, numerous land, district and house committees, food administrations, and neighborhood councils were also called upon to cooperate with the authorities (order No. 23 of June 15). The factory committees remained unchanged; moreover, their forced dissolution was subject to liability “according to the laws of war” (Order No. 4 of June 8). In principle, even the structures of Soviet power, namely the Soviets of Workers' Deputies, were not denied. Komuch’s order No. 1 stated: “the existing Soviets are dissolved,” but it also stipulated that “the procedure for new elections will be determined by the workers’ conference.” Recognizing the validity of restrictions on civil liberties under wartime conditions, Komuch still did not refuse to hold elections of city self-government bodies.

However, the Committee's narrow party politics caused a reaction that was far from expected. The changed attitude towards the Social Revolutionaries and their program was evidenced by the results of the elections to the dumas of the Volga cities, held in mid-August 1918. From 17 to 30% of citizens who had the right to vote came to the polls. The defeat of the socialist bloc, united according to the lists of the Socialist Revolutionaries and Social Democrats (Mensheviks), was a sensation. The results were especially impressive in those areas where, back in November 1917, the left parties received a majority (in the Middle Volga region, 57.2% of voters then voted for the Socialist Revolutionaries). Only in Samara did the socialists manage to win more than 50% of the seats, while in Ufa, Simbirsk and Orenburg not much more than 35-40% of voters voted for them. Observers noted a decline in interest in “socialist ideals.”

People's Army

The commander-in-chief of the People's Army of Komuch and the mobilized units of the Orenburg and Ural Cossack troops became the head of the 1st Czechoslovak Hussite Rifle Division S. Chechek. It was assumed that the People's Army would consist exclusively of volunteers, and not only convinced opponents of Soviet power, but also “convinced socialists.” The Regulations on the People's Army, in particular, established the equality of all ranks of the army outside of service, the observance of subordination during service, as well as the need to take measures to bring officers and soldiers closer together to raise the cultural level and civic maturity of the soldier masses. The first unit of the army was the Samara 1st Volunteer Squad, formed under the leadership of Colonel V.O. Kappel, the future legendary hero of the White movement in the East of Russia (from July 1918 he became commander of the People's Army). Taking command of the squad, Kappel stated “that he considers the first and sacred task of every fighter against the Bolsheviks to strive for a common coordinated struggle ... regardless of political views and party affiliation.”

The army was staffed according to the militia system: each city fielded a battalion of infantry and a squadron of cavalry, and each volost - a “retinue company”. The command was assumed by both career officers and “wartime officers” - former peasants and workers, authoritative in their environment. The names of the units were given, as a rule, according to the city or county where the formation took place. In addition to volunteer units in cities and towns, local self-defense squads were also created. But still, the main combat load in the Volga region was borne by units of the Czechoslovak Corps.

Fighting

The first stage of military operations on the Volga (July - September 1918) was successful for the Socialist Revolutionaries. Operations developed in two main directions: up and down the Volga, respectively to Kazan - Sviyazhsk - Perm and to Saratov and Tsaritsyn. The Syzran and Simbirsk railway bridges across the Volga, captured by the Czechs, made it possible to constantly receive reinforcements from the Urals and Siberia.

Units under the command of Colonel Kappel, after a 150 km march along the right bank of the Volga, took Simbirsk on July 21. The position of the Red Army was complicated by the mutiny of the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front of the Reds, the left Socialist Revolutionary M. A. Muravyov. Intending, simultaneously with his party supporters in Moscow, to overthrow the Bolshevik Council of People's Commissars and resume the war with Germany, Muravyov tried to turn the troops entrusted to him towards Moscow. However, parts of the “internationalists” (Chinese, Hungarians, etc.) and Latvian riflemen refused to obey the order, and on July 10, 1918, the commander-in-chief shot himself (according to another version, he died in a shootout). Also during this period, the Bolsheviks had to quickly gather forces to suppress the uprisings organized by the Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom of B.V. Savinkov in Yaroslavl, Murom, Rybinsk and Kostroma.

The next significant and very spectacular success of the People's Army was the liberation of Kappel Kazan by volunteers on August 7. The city provided about 2 thousand more volunteers, as well as rich warehouses of ammunition and equipment. In addition, the most important result of the operation was the seizure of the gold reserves of the Russian Empire, evacuated to Kazan by order of the Provisional Government (651 million rubles in gold and 110 million rubles worth of credit notes). All the property of the fund was described and sealed, and when the Reds’ approach to the city became dangerous, it was sent to the rear.

On the same days, another volunteer detachment, Colonel F.E. Makhin, was moving south towards Saratov. He managed to occupy Khvalynsk and Volsk (September 6). There were 120 km left to Saratov, but Makhin failed to develop the offensive. Now the Volga Front relied on the Kazan-Simbirsk line, holding Samara in the center. The September battles on the Volga Front seriously worsened Komuch's position. On August 27, Kappel’s attempt to seize another railway bridge across the Volga and, having occupied Sviyazhsk, expand operations towards Nizhny Novgorod was repulsed. Under the pressure of the numerically superior Reds, the Kappelites were unable to hold out in Kazan, and on September 8 the city fell. On September 12, Bolshevik troops captured Simbirsk and the bridge over the Volga. To avoid encirclement, Makhin’s group left Volsk on September 13 and began to retreat to Samara. On September 14, the Northern and Southern groups united near the capital of Komuch, hoping to hold the so-called Samara Luka (bend of the Volga) and the Syzran Bridge. However, the People's Army and the Cossacks were unable to repel the powerful frontal attack of the red Eastern Front, and on October 7 Samara was abandoned by them.

After the military defeat, members of Komuch moved to Ufa, where they resigned in favor of the local anti-Bolshevik government - the Ufa Directory. The committee was transformed into the Congress of Members of the Constituent Assembly, which worked until the end of 1918.

Main results

The anti-Bolshevik resistance on the Volga, holding back the advance of the Reds, allowed the forces of the White armies to concentrate in Siberia and the Urals. The Volga Front covered the east of Russia. According to Professor G.K. Gins, who became the Minister of the Provisional Siberian Government, “historical justice requires that we note that the postponement of the recruitment of the Siberian Army and the possibility of some preparation for mobilization were the result of the selfless struggle on the banks of the Volga of the so-called People's Army. Intelligent in composition, consciously hostile to communism, but poorly prepared and poorly supplied, it was forced to retreat to the Urals by the fall, but all summer it enabled Siberia to organize itself and prepare military force.” The 180,000-strong Siberian Army became the basis of the future Russian army of Admiral Kolchak.

Vasily Tsvetkov, Doctor of Historical Sciences

Few cities in Russia are destined to perform capital functions. Our city is lucky - Samara has twice been the temporary capital of the country. The first time was in 1918 - the capital of the Russian Federative Democratic Republic, the second - during the Great Patriotic War, when in 1941 a number of USSR government institutions and foreign diplomatic missions were evacuated to the then Kuibyshev. And if a lot is said and written about the “reserve capital”, the memory of those events is immortalized in memorial plaques, then the “capital history” of 1918 is practically consigned to oblivion. In my opinion, this is completely wrong and erroneous. Samara, as the capital of non-Bolshevik Russia, can be a good tourism brand. Moreover, most of the most important buildings in which government bodies were located at that time have been preserved. Omsk, which has a similar fate (let me remind you, it was the capital of the Russian State headed by Admiral A.V. Kolchak), is using these opportunities. There, excursion routes are organized to places associated with Kolchak and the events of those years, and corresponding souvenir products are produced. In Samara, unfortunately, there is nothing even close to this. This omission needs to be eliminated. In connection with the developing domestic tourism, I consider this direction to be quite relevant, and capable of attracting additional interest to the historical center of our city. This is not at all about promoting the Socialist Revolutionary ideology of the RFDR and Komuch, but about the fact that it is simply stupid not to use the existing opportunity to develop domestic tourism. Moreover, this is part of our history, which we simply must know.

There is no need to retell the story of Komuch; it is quite well and fully covered in the relevant literature. But the main events will have to be pointed out. So, on June 8, 1918, Samara was occupied by troops of the Czechoslovak Corps, which rebelled against the Bolshevik government. On the same day in the building of the Samara City Duma on Dvoryanskaya Street (now Kuibysheva St., 48)

It was announced the creation of a Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly and the transfer to it of civil and military power in the province. Subsequently, Komuch's power extended to all territories occupied by his troops. In Samara, as the administrative center of the RFDR until its reoccupation by the Bolsheviks on October 8, 1918, there were governing bodies of this territory - departments (i.e., ministries) and other institutions. Where exactly were they located, in what buildings? Finding out this, it seems to me, is quite interesting and informative.

Komuch himself was located in the mansion of Naumov (indicated on the map by number 1), the former Minister of Agriculture of Russia, on Dvoryanskaya Street (now Kuibysheva Street, 151, Samara Palace of Children and Youth Creativity).


Over time, a number of Komuch’s departments were located in other buildings, and the chairman of Komuch, the Foreign Office, the office of Komuch and the business manager, the Department of State Order and Security remained in the Naumov mansion.

The Department of Internal Affairs with departments: administrative, administrative for the affairs of zemstvo and city governments, military service and the office of general affairs was located in the building of the former Commercial Assembly, on the corner of Dvoryanskaya and Lev Tolstoy streets (on the map - 2). Now this is the street. Kuibysheva, 135, administration of Samara.

The Department of Posts and Telegraphs (3) was located in the building of the postal and telegraph district at the corner of Nikolaevskaya and Uspenskaya, 20 (the current address is Chapaevskaya/Komsomolskaya, 14/59).

The food department (4) was located on Dvoryanskaya Street in the building of the Peasant Land Bank (Kuibysheva St., 153, SamSTU).

The Department of Trade and Industry (5) had its seat in Sanin's house on Dvoryanskaya, 128, between Alekseevskaya and Lev Tolstoy (Kuibyshev St., 118-120/Lva Tolstoy, 18).

The Department of Agriculture (6) was located in the building of the Land Committee on the corner of Predtechenskaya and Voznesenskaya streets (Nekrasovskaya, 20, corner of Stepan Razin Street).

The Department of Justice (7) was located in the building of the Samara District Court (Ventseka St., 39/Kuibysheva, 60, Samara Regional Court).

The Department of Public Education (8) was located in the building of the Samara Provincial Zemstvo Government on the corner of Saratovskaya and Lev Tolstoy streets (Frunze St., 116/L. Tolstoy, 25, College of Construction and Entrepreneurship).

The Department of Railways (9) was located on Zavodskaya Street in Shikhobalov’s house in the premises of the Samara Regional Committee for the Regulation of the Transportation of Bulk Goods by Rail (67 Ventsek St.).

The Department of Finance (10) is located in the building of the Commercial and Industrial Bank on the corner of Dvoryanskaya and Voskresenskaya (Kuibysheva, 55/Pionerskaya, 48).

The Department of State Control (12) was located in the premises of the Control of the Samara-Zlatoust Railway on Nikolaevskaya Street between Pochtovaya and Aleksandrovskaya Streets. In this place, part of the pre-revolutionary buildings has been lost, but, as it seems to me, this building may be the current dormitory of the Institute of Culture (Chapayevskaya St., 192).


However, so far I have not found information that this is the building of the Control of the Samara-Zlatoust Railway, so this question needs further clarification.

The information department of Komuch (13) was located in the building of the Provincial Administration on the corner of Dvoryanskaya and Alekseevskaya squares (Kuibysheva St., 81). In the same building there was an office of the Samara Vedomosti newspaper, published by Komuch, which was his official organ.


Then, from July 10, 1918, the official organ was the newspaper “Bulletin of the Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly.” His editorial office and office (14) have been located since August 1918 in Klodt’s house on Dvoryanskaya Street, between the street. L. Tolstoy and Alekseevskaya (now - Kuibysheva St., 139, Children's Art Gallery). By order of the Department of Internal Affairs of Komuch, the Klodt house, which previously housed the canteen of the society of working women, was occupied by the editor and office of this newspaper.

Of the military institutions of Komuch, one can name the Commandant's Directorate (15) in Kurlin's house on the corner of Saratovskaya and Alekseevskaya (Frunze St., 159/Krasnoarmeyskaya, 15).

This building also housed the Military Headquarters, where volunteers were enrolled into the ranks of the People's Army.

The Main Military Headquarters of the People's Army, and from July 29, 1918 - the Military Department (16) were located in the Khovanskaya gymnasium on the corner of Zavodskaya and Nikolaevskaya streets (51 Ventseka St./74 Chapaevskaya St., school No. 13).


On the 1st floor of this building there was a formation department, in which enrollment into the ranks of the volunteer battalion of the People's Army was carried out.

The headquarters of this battalion (17) was located on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the Theological Seminary building on Sobornaya Street (Molodogvardeiskaya St., 133, SamSTU).

The activities of the headquarters of the Volsk People's Army of the Constituent Assembly ended in Samara. Created in Volsk on July 4, 1918 after the overthrow of Soviet power there, it was defeated during the fighting, left Volsk on July 12, and its headquarters sailed by steamship to Syzran, then to Khvalynsk and Samara. The remnants of the Volsky detachments were transferred under the command of Colonel A.S. Bakich, who led the People's Army in the Syzran region. And the former commander of the Volsky detachments, staff captain V. Sokolov, and his chief of staff, captain L.V. Nikolsky and a number of headquarters employees arrived in Samara on July 20, 1918 on the ship Trud, where they prepared reports on the army’s activities until August 13, 1918, when Sokolov’s last order was issued on the final disbandment of the headquarters. In Samara, the headquarters of the Volsky detachments (18) worked on the second floor of the real school building on Kazanskaya Street (now it is Aleksey Tolstoy Street, 31).

In the Samara province, the department of the Union of St. George Knights (19), chaired by the head of the Samara garrison, Major General Stepan Zakharovich Potapov, actively participated in the formation of the People's Army of Komuch. The department worked from June 20, 1918 until the capture of Samara by the Bolsheviks at the address: st. Zavodskaya, 50, in the former house of Neklyutina, where the Communist Club was located before the arrival of the Czechoslovaks. Previously, I mistakenly believed that the Samara Knights of St. George occupied one of the neighboring buildings. In the same house of Neklyutina, by the way, before she moved to Kurlin’s mansion, Komuch’s counterintelligence office was initially located.


The auto control of the People's Army (20) was located at Troitskaya, 25, in Fedorov's house (now it is Galaktionovskaya, 25).


Propaganda Cultural and Educational Department of Komuch (21) was created in August 1918. Located in Samara at the address: st. Voznesenskaya, 84 (now, probably, this is a house on Stepan Razin Street, 86).


This department supervised cultural and educational work and agitation in parts of the People's Army and among the population. The department included subdepartments: organizational, which was engaged in the creation of propaganda departments in provinces, districts, and volosts; literary, which sent agitators to places, organized propagandist schools, and supplied the army and population with propaganda literature; cultural and educational, which was in charge of the opening of libraries, reading rooms, medical centers, bookstores; a military man who recruited volunteers for the People's Army.The department published the newspapers "People", "Khalk" (in the Tatar language), and after the evacuation in October 1918 to Ufa - "Khypar" (in the Chuvash language). The department also published leaflets and the “Bulletin of Liberated Russia” (one issue was published with a circulation of 15 thousand copies, which was distributed in the front line and on Soviet territory using airplanes and couriers). In order to train agitators, on September 6, 1918, the Department opened free courses, the program of which was designed for 84 hours and included topics on political economy, history, law, modern politics and international relations.
Literature:

“Bulletin of the Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly”, various numbers;

Archive of Contemporary History of Russia [Text] / Feder. arch. agency, state arch. Ross. Federations; ed.: V. A. Kozlov, S. V. Mironenko. - Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2001 - . - 24 cm (in lane). [T. 11]: Journals of meetings, orders and materials of the Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly: June-October 1918 / author. preface: B. F. Dodonov, V. M. Khrustalev. - 2011

Petrov A.A. History of the Volsk People's Army. // Military historical research in the Volga region. Vol. 7. Saratov. 2006

Samara is the capital of the Russian Federative Democratic Republic

KOMUCH (stands for Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly), was convened in Samara in 1918, and became Russia's first anti-Bolshevik government. Its first composition of the Committee included five representatives of the Socialist Revolutionary Party: Chairman V.K. Volsky, P. Klimushkin, I. Brushvit, I. Nesterov, B. Fortunatov.

Consolidation of power

On the territory occupied by the interventionists and the Whites, the Committee proclaimed itself the temporary supreme Russian power. Within 4 months, the composition of the Committee increased to 97 members.

Executive power passed to E. F. Rogovsky, chairman of the “Council of Department Managers.” At the moment when the Czechoslovak corps occupied Samara, the Committee began to form its army (the “People's Army”).

The famous lieutenant colonel volunteered to command the first volunteer squad of 350 people. Under his command, troops captured Syzran, Stavropol (Tolyatti), Buzuluk, Buguruslan.

Then, during a difficult battle at the Melekess station, the Bolsheviks were thrown back to Simbirsk. In August, despite arriving on the Eastern Front, Capel's troops defeat the red flotilla at the mouth of the Kama River and take.

Here they substantially replenish supplies of medicines, weapons and ammunition, and also take away Russia’s gold reserves. Thus, the power of the Committee extended to the Samara, Simbirsk, Ufa, part of the Saratov, Kazan provinces. The Ural and Orenburg were recognized.

KOMUCH reforms

• Establishment of a fixed eight-hour working day
• Permission to gather workers' meetings and gatherings of peasants
• Preservation of trade unions and committees
• Abolition of Soviet decrees.
• The intention was expressed to nationalize the land and provide peasants with the opportunity to return their plots, which, in itself, contradicted each other. Komuch sent armed expeditions to protect the kulaks and mobilize the male population into the People's Army."

Fall of Komuch, reasons

• The army lacked reserves that should have been prepared during Capel's victories
• The mobilization was not carried out with due care due to the decline in the authority of the Committee
• Failure of the corps system in the army
• The irreconcilable position of the workers of the Volga region, who protested against mobilization and demanded an end to the war. People begin to rally (the Samara speech of railway workers prompted Komuch to call in the troops)
• A return to the idea of ​​relying on the peasant population.

By the end of September, the army withdrew from most of the territories previously controlled by the Committee. At the state meeting, the Ufa Directory is formed, which replaces the Committee and the Provisional Siberian Government. After Admiral A.V. came to power on November 18, 1918, the Directory and all its subordinate institutions were dissolved by General V.O. Kappel.

The further path of KOMUCH participants

Deputies tried to campaign against Kolchak in Ufa, but failed. 25 people were arrested and imprisoned, others were killed. At the end of December, 10 people were hacked to pieces with sabers and shot by Kolchak’s officers under the leadership of Bartashevsky without trial or investigation.

Komuch of the first composition - I. M. Brushvit, P. D. Klimushkin, B. K. Fortunatov, V. K. Volsky (chairman) and I. P. Nesterov

The Komuch of the first composition included five Socialist Revolutionaries, members of the Constituent Assembly: V.K. Volsky - chairman, Ivan Brushvit, Prokopiy Klimushkin, Boris Fortunatov and Ivan Nesterov.

The propaganda cultural and educational department of Komuch began to publish the official printed organ of the new government - the newspaper “Bulletin of the Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly.”

Strengthening the power of Komuch

Members of the Provisional All-Russian Government and the Council of Ministers of the Provisional All-Russian Government

Bibliography

Kappel and the Kappelites. 2nd ed., rev. and additional M.: NP "Posev", 2007 ISBN 978-5-85824-174-4

see also

Links

Additional links

• Shilovsky M. V. Provisional All-Russian Government (Directory) September 23 - November 18, 1918
• Zhuravlev V.V. State meeting. On the history of the consolidation of the anti-Bolshevik movement in eastern Russia in July - September 1918.
• Flags of state entities during the Civil War.
• Nazyrov P. F., Nikonova O. Yu. Ufa State Conference. Documents and materials.
• Lelevich G. Review of literature about the Samara Constituent Assembly / G. Lelevich // Proletarian Revolution. – 1922. – No. 7. – P.225 – 229.
• Popov F. G., For the power of the Soviets. The defeat of the Samara Constituent Assembly, Kuibyshev, 1959.
• Garmiza V.V., The collapse of the Socialist Revolutionary governments, M., 1970.
• Medvedev V.G. White regime under the red flag: (Volga region, 1918) / V.G. Medvedev. – Ulyanovsk: Publishing house SVNTs, 1998. – 220 p.
• Lapandin V.A. Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly: power structure and political activity (June 1918 - January 1919) / V.A. Lapandin. – Samara: SCAINI, 2003. – 242 p.
• Lapandin V.A. Socialist-Revolutionary political-state formations in Russia during the civil war: a historical and bibliographic study of domestic literature 1918 – 2002. / V.A. Lapandin. – Samara: Samara Center for Analytical History and Historical Informatics, 2006. – 196 p.

State formations during the Civil War in Russia and the formation of the USSR (1917-1924)
World War I · February Revolution · October Revolution· RSFSR · Civil War· White movement · Intervention · Basmachi · USSR
North Baltics Belarus Poland	Non-Soviet: North Karelian State · Olonets Republic · Northern Region · Republic of Northern Ingria · Kingdom of Finland · Republic of Finland· Baltic Duchy · Duchy of Courland and Semigallia · Government of the North-Western Region · Latvian republic· Kingdom of Lithuania · Republic of Lithuania· Central Lithuania · Belarusian People's Republic · Kingdom-Regency of Poland · Republic of Poland
Ukraine Bessarabia Crimea	Non-Soviet: Ukrainian People's Republic · Ukrainian State · Directory · Crimean People's Republic · Free Territory (Makhnovshchina) · Moldavian Democratic Republic
Don Kuban North Caucasus	Non-Soviet: All-Great Don Army · Kuban People's Republic · Mountain Republic · Republic of the Union of Mountain People of the North Caucasus · North Caucasus Emirate · South of Russia
Volga region Ural Siberia Far East	Non-Soviet: Idel-Ural · Lesser Bashkiria · State of Buryat-Mongolia · Komuch· Provisional Regional Government of the Urals · Provisional Siberian Government · Provisional All-Russian Government · Political Center (Irkutsk) · Provisional Yakut Regional People's Government · Amur Zemsky Territory (“Black Buffer”) · Green Klin · Russian Eastern Outskirts
Transcaucasia	Non-Soviet: Administration of Western Armenia ·

Until now, for most Samara residents, many of the events that took place in our region from 1917 to 1922 remain a mystery. One of these phenomena was the formation of an alternative government in the city - the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly. How realistic were his chances of retaining power? Why did our city give rise to the second wave of the Civil War? And how should we treat the members of KOMUCH and the Czechs who supported them? The organizers of the exhibition “Alternatives to Soviet Power” suggest thinking about this. It opened in the Samara Regional Scientific Library. At the same time, the “Living Pages of History” festival is being held at the regional museum of local history. Its organizers invite Samara residents to feel for themselves the tragic atmosphere of the confrontation between KOMUCH and the Soviet regime.

Dispersal of the Duma

The seizure of power by the Bolshevik Party on October 24-26 (old style) 1917 was swift and unexpected. Gradually, new management was introduced in the cities of the Volga region. In Samara, the Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Valerian Kuibyshev, took power on November 8.

In turn, the socialists led by the Socialist Revolutionaries and the non-party deputies who supported them at the beginning of 1918 decided to form a new government instead of the Council of People's Commissars. The Bolsheviks responded to this challenge. On January 5 in Petrograd and January 6 in Moscow, rallies in support of the Constituent Assembly were shot. By Lenin's decision, the new government was dispersed. Socialist parties were declared counter-revolutionary.

Touchstone

Of course, this step caused protest from some Samarans. The dispersal of the Constituent Assembly shook the sympathy of some peasants and workers for the Bolsheviks and caused an increase in hostility towards them among the intelligentsia and the petty and middle bourgeoisie. At the same time, deputies who did not recognize the new government began to unite. The Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (KOMUCH) created by them declared its goal to create a Russian federal democratic republic. They turned to former Czech prisoners of war for help. Because of the war, those were stuck on the way to Vladivostok, from which they were supposed to sail to their homeland. For a detachment of eight thousand to fight its way to the Czech Republic, to the west, through Soviet Russia and German-occupied Ukraine, it would be madness. For security reasons, the Czechoslovaks had to take care of a strong rear. As a result, the Czech command decided to suspend the movement “until the completion of the formation of KOMUCH’s army.”

In June 1918, Soviet power in Samara was overthrown by the combined efforts of urban rebels and the Czechoslovak Corps.

Czech machine gunners

Capital of the republic

“It is necessary to debunk red-and-white stereotypes, to show that a very difficult situation developed in Samara during the Civil War,” says Andrei Kalyagin, senior researcher at the regional scientific library. — Today historians call KOMUCH the third alternative route for Russia. Its members were both against the Bolsheviks and against the whites.

According to historians, the “Samara Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly” was created by I.M. Brushvit, P.D. Klimushkin, V.K. Volsky, B.K. Fortunatov, N.P. Nesterov. Responsible positions were distributed, departments and police were formed.

On June 8, 1918, together with the Czech command, they arrived at the city government building and announced that power was passing into the hands of KOMUCH. All members of the Constituent Assembly (except for the Bolsheviks) were invited to come to the capital of our province to form an all-Russian government. Deputy from the Tver province Vladimir Volsky, who was in Samara, was elected chairman of KOMUCH. With its first order, the new government restored local self-government bodies to all rights, dissolved the Soviets and called new elections. The Russian Republic was created from several provinces occupied by the Czechs. And Samara became its capital.

The power of KOMUCH extended to Samara, part of the Saratov, Simbirsk, Kazan, Ufa provinces, the territories of the Orenburg and Ural Cossack troops.

Funeral of those killed in the battles for Samara

To be continued.

— During the period of KOMUCH, departments (ministries) were formed in Samara, the People’s Army was organized, a university was opened, freedom of speech, press, and assembly were restored... And in the year of the 100th anniversary of the Civil War, it is impossible to ignore this fact. Alexander Zavalny, chief bibliographer of the local history department of the SOUNL

It is very important for residents of our city to see with their own eyes the historical documents presented at the exhibition in the regional library, and to realize that Samara was the capital twice - during the time of KOMUCH and during the era of the Great Patriotic War. Petr Kabytov, professor at Samara University